Brazil: Becoming a Major Jihadist Hub in Latin America and the Caribbean


By Cristina C. Giancchini

Brazil has been under the intelligence community's radar for quite some time. But when Palestine suggested dropping the US, as a reliable peace broker, to replace her with Brazil – among others – the alarms sounded. When Brazilians decided it was time for them to have more international visibility, they turned to the hottest spot in the world – the Middle East. But is Brazil indeed seeking to be a more active player on the international stage or is she just trying to divert our attention from a much deeper problem that threatens the world?

The Tri-Border Problem

The Tri-Border area (TBA), also known as the triple frontier, is an area where the Paraná and Iguazú rivers converge, along the junction of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
Three cities bear the load of illegal activity: Puerto Iguazu (Argentina), Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), and Foz do Iguazu (Brazil). In these off the beaten path towns, laws are not enforced, money is laundered, weapons, drugs, and people are trafficked on daily basis, with very little being done to bring it to a halt. Crimes and dealers in the black market have been able to thrive here to due to the lack of consistent law enforcement, from any of the three nations of the shared border.Shelley Munson
Areas with such characteristics are fertile ground for the creation of terrorist networks. 

Brazil - in the TBA, São Paulo and Pernambuco (where at least one Israeli man was executed in broad day light, in the streets of Recife, back in 2011) - is now the HQ of several terrorist groups, namely:
  • Al-Qaeda
  • PLO
  • Hamas
  • Hizbullah
  • And now probably ISIS
According to the Brazilian Federal Police (PF), Hizbullah has even established a partnership with the local criminal syndicate “PCC” - which receives Lebanese weapons in exchange for protection services to Muslim criminals in Brazilian prisons (source in Portuguese). Hizbullah has close ties with Hamas and it often uses PLO operatives as proxies, in Israel. If we add this to the knowledge that PLO elements have been assisting ISIS, it's not difficult to surmise that the PCC is also linked to other Global Jihadist Groups. No wonder the Federal Police fears a terrorist attack in Brazilian soil.

Historical Context

The history of how this country grew into a fertile soil for destabilisation, and terror, is very interesting as it all started with the world's favourite Pet: the PLO. Since the 1970's, the PLO has engaged in a diplomatic battle in Latin America to sway its support from the Jewish State. To that effect, it has worked closely with Nicaragua's radical Sandinista regime, it has helped those who wanted to overthrow the democratically elected government of El Salvador, it has trained terrorists in Cuba and in the Middle East (who'd return to their respective countries to undermine established regimes – much like AQ and ISIS now do with Foreign Fighters) and the PLO has worked, in the Arab League Office in Brasilia, to provoke “anti-Semitic hostility against Brazil's 160,000 Jews” (in The PLO's Growing Latin American Base, Heritage Foundation) a trend that continues till today with reports that the Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People requested a Brazilian University to provide a list with the name of their Jewish Students and Lecturers “in the graduate program”.
In Brazil, as in other major Latin American countries, the PLO benefits from the Arab League's campaign to raise the ethnic and national consciousness of the indigenous Arab population. 1 million Latin Americans are of Middle East extraction. - idem

It all started with the PLO. But since the world, for a long time, depended on the Arab oil and saw it expedient to use Israel as a scapegoat, it turned a blind eye to Palestinian activity around the globe, mainly in regions where they could exploit political crises – a modus operandi employed by Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other Jihadist groups today.

Terrorist Groups Networking in Brazil

A colleague and I, in search for a link between the Khorasan and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, chatted about Brazil and an interesting product resulted therefrom:
  • We both agreed the problem didn't start with President Dilma Rousseff, despite her Bulgarian ancestry and communist background. 
  • The Bulgarian and communist links are intriguing as Arabs had strong links to Bulgaria, the former USSR states and the Nazis. Some Arab nations were inclusively aligned to Hitler and there was a huge Arab migration to Latin America. Arab presence in Brazil probably goes back that far.
  • President Lula compounded the problem with his ambiguous and insidious foreign policy.  

Furthermore, my colleague made me understand the following:

“What we are experiencing in this Region is network building through Associations, Business, Education, Religion and trade. For example, in the arrests for the JFK bombings we saw the Jihadist links between Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname. We also saw a narcotics link between Trinidad, Suriname, Panama and the U.S.  We also know there's a link to the narcotic corridors of Venezuela and Columbia, Guyana, Suriname  and Trinidad. These networks move terrorists, people, funds, information, weapons and serve as safe havens for many. Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia are becoming linked to these networks through The PLO networks, AQ and IS. 

I see Brazil becoming more entrenched and there is a likelihood that she can become the major Jihadist hub in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For all of the above, I recommend keeping an even closer eye on Brazil and on her dangerous connections. This is a nation with over 200 million people, and the world can't afford to have her fall under Islamist control. If it so happened, it would represent a major Jihadist victory inasmuch as from there, the Mujahideen would be one step closer to reaching crucial regions (North and South America, Africa and Europe). A new strategy is urgently needed.


[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society]

Comments

  1. A Palestinian terrorist showed up dead in Bulgaria at PA's embassy. Abbas condemned the killing lol. There's a clear link btw Bulgaria and PL, we need to look at it in more depth. Good job, Cristina.

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  2. Hi Cristina,

    How can the PA drop one of its bigger donors? They just said that for domestic consumption. Nevertheless, their mentioning Brazil is worrying as this is the country that has not accepted the new Israeli ambassador to Brazil and yet inaugurated the new Palestine Embassy (a replica of the Al-Aqsa Mosque).

    President Dilma's background should be looked into. How come this leader messes up and she remains popular? I smell big money behind such polls, but coming from where: Iran, Qatar? I agree with Anonymous too: Bulgaria seems to be always linked to either Hezbollah or the PLO. Today it was reported a Palestinian Terrorist was found dead at the Palestinian Embassy. What should we think of it?

    We must also remember that ISIS elements with fake Greek passports were caught in Brazil by the PF, so I share the Federal Police's concern.

    Excellent post, my darling. Thank you.

    Cheers

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  3. The timing for this article is perfect. Bulgaria is not doing a very good job. Hizbullah is comfortable enough in the country to attack Israeli citizens, the PLO uses the territory to help ISIS friends and have access to other countries in the region to supply their networks, remember the PLO guy who died when he opened his safe at the embassy too? They pass weapons inside Europe and politicians still support them? I really enjoyed this text, thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Pietr, I don't agree that Bulgaria is not doing a good job; it is doing a very good job in CT. And the evidence to that is that they actually catch the terrorists and convict them. They also investigate terror attacks and their findings have been highly satisfactory. What we should ask ourselves is why Bulgaria seems to always show up in the radar: is it because of what Cristina's colleague said (an ancient Arab connection) or is it because Bulgaria has very close relations with Israel?

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  4. Need to check where Lula's wealth came from. He wasn't rich when took office but when he left he owned one billion, how? And was shift in foreign policy due to payments done from Arabs? Remember that many of this people in Brazil pretended to be Turkish.

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  5. Thank you all for your feedback. It's much appreciated.

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  6. Cristina, great article! It's a shame that Brasil fell in the hands of the PLO and their ilk. Brazilians are a great people, nice and warm, but their corrupt leaders are dragging them to a problem, a grave one too! When there's a terrorist attack in that country the innocent will pay not the PT folks like Lula. Somebody here suggested Lula got money from the Arabs and I agree! But no one has gone after him yet.

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